Bonfire of the Vanities

There has been no end of commentary, from both sides of the Atlantic, on the DSK affair.  Yet a couple of points seem not to have been made, and so shall be made here.

(1)   Not disputed is the scenario at T = 0:   DSK exits the shower, and finds Diallo in his room.  At this point, narratives differ, and continue to diverge over the subsequent events of the day.   But the oddity of the initial situation somehow passes without comment from either side.

To see how odd it is:  Imagine that Hillary Clinton, say, checked into a luxury hotel in Paris.   She is granted the luxury and privacy of the V.I.P. suite.  Yet upon stepping naked from the shower, she is confronted with a man (let’s call him Carlos) who, despite the obvious fact that she has not checked out, claims he is there to “clean the room”.

It is evident straight off that all public opinion would be against the man -- your first thought is that he has snuck in to steal something, or worse --  and (on the distaff side) would no doubt would work itself up to a righteous froth in the process.  But with the genders reversed… sound of crickets.  
Yet one thing is plain.  Either

    (a)  Diallo had no business being in that place at that time, and may have been up to something; or

    (b) She was there by prior arrangement with her … client…
(French reactions to this latter scenario here.)

To continue the thought-experiment:   

Imagine further that Carlos --- without corroborating witness -- goes on to accuse Ms. Clinton of some atrocity.  The Secretary, having checked out, is on a plane for her next appointment.  It is already on the tarmac, when French forces storm the plane, remove her by force, then parade her in handcuffs before a sneering, jeering populace.  She is thrown into prison with the lowest scum; unflattering photographs of her in unkempt captivity  are illegally leaked to the media.  The French press publishes front-page cartoons depicting her as various unpleasant animals, and in huge headlines, labels her  “la perv”.   An ambitious D.A. claims an open-and-shut case.  She is denied bail.  Invective pours upon her from around the world, and spreads to slurs on Americans generally, and on women generally.  When she is finally released on bail (at a figure higher than what is charged for most accused murderers), she attempts to find refuge at her husband's pied-a-terre in Paris, but the neighbors (with what legal authority is unclear)  block the move, not wishing to live near such a leper.  She is forced to hire emergency lodgings at her own considerable expense, and (lest she slip out by night to wreak further outrages) to wear an ankle bracelet at all times, as well as to hire -- again at her own considerable expense -- armed guards to watch her every move, with orders to shoot if she tries to pull something funny.  (It is unclear whether the bullets thus expended would be additionally charged to her account.)
It develops that Carlos has extensive ties in the Corsican underworld -- only, we have not been told so much as his name, which is shielded out of tender concern for what the Secretary of State might have done to him. Meanwhile these facts are hushed up, while the blood-lust mounts, and Clinton resigns from her office in disgrace, her Presidential ambitions in tatters.  Before her guilt or innocence can be determined, she is replaced by a politician of the opposite gender, who soon winds up facing criminal charges in turn.
Even when the lies begin to unravel, and she is finally released, a horde of paparazzi follow her wherever she goes, and file snide reports on what she's wearing, and how much she pays for lunch.

By this point, a number of Americans would be calling for the bombing of France.  (Well, actually, for Clinton, no, but if it had happened to Palin, then definitely.)   And this, in effect, is exactly what New York City, and its gutter press, did to the head of perhaps the most important financial body in the world, and the man who might well otherwise have become the next President of France.

(2)   Disputes abound, both factual and deontological, but on one thing all sides seem piously to agree.  “Only two people know what happened in that room.  The rest of us, we’ll probably never know.”

Now, that is certainly a logical possibility, perhaps even a probability:  but a truism it is not.  Some others who might be au courant include:  the concierge, or winking desk-clerk, who for a fee will arrange such things;  her handler, who will certainly be wanting his cut from so ripe a plum.

(3)  The whole affair is eerily reminiscent of Tom Wolfe’s classic novel, Bonfire of the Vanities,  where again, a man of finance and some heft, is brought low by an ill wind from the Bronx….

Footnote:

Having recklessly slimed DSK, the New York Post (a Murdoch rag) is now raking over Diallo with equal glee:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/hotel_maid_got_stiffed_by_dom_4sML8y67I7vcfXEBbTo2UM

(The pun, of course, is intentional.)

Still and all, give the devil his due.  If these latest allegations prove true (a big if; I wouldn’t take on faith  the word of Murdoch’s minions, nor a leak from the Defense), it will be quite a scoop for the Post, throwing the entire affair in a new and lucid light, one which had never occurred to me during the weeks when I pondered the ins and outs of this case.   It does sometimes happen that a tawdry source is the first to reveal a bombshell that is later largely substantiated (the National Enquirer, the Drudge Report).

[Update 10 VII 2011]
A number of parallel cases are examined here -- this time not as thought-experiment, but as fact:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-arent-we-mad-at-the-mistresses/2011/07/08/gIQA9DwQ4H_story.html

[Update 27 VIII 2011]
Eventually, as it must, DSK-fatigue sets in:

Un sparadrap nommé DSK

À l'instar du capitaine Haddock, les dirigeants socialistes aimeraient se débarrasser de l'ancien patron du FMI, dont le retour risque de perturber leur campagne 

DSK ministre en 2012 ? Une majorité de Français est contre

Blanchi, mais pas ministrable pour autant.

[Update 29 VIII 2011]
Further fun is to be had here.

[Update 18 IX 11]
DSK interview here.

~     ~     ~

Actually, a propos of pretty much nothing -- there is a wonderful scene of scene of Woman-walking-in-on-man-exiting-naked-from-the-shower in Episode 5 of Season 5 of “Angel”.   Angel has had a tiring day, and has just washed off some demon blood, when in waltzes Eve.  She shows no remorse at thus walking in on him (nor does he bother with a towel), but excuses herself thus:

            The door was open.  Well, unlocked.

Angel knows otherwise.  She counters:

            Well, I had a key.

He recovers what she had purloined.   She idles on:

            You take a long shower for a guy.  Were we having some gentleman’s time?

-- Ah!  It’s a great show.  And French politics is un show for sure.  And the Big Apple is a show of its own.   It’s all good, in its own way, even when it’s outrageous.